PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 86

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

A FEW MINUTES WITH SHAKESPEARE. VI. Last week I gave what I thought would j be my concluding Chat on Shakespeare, ! but I have been asked for a list of the ' Historical Plays covering the period mentioned in my last, and give them to show what a large period of English history is covered by Shakespeare's 1 Historical Plays, and how with the filling in of blanks by other play wrights really nearly three centuries of English history have been dramatised. The rage at Home just now is, or was, a patriotic play, and one can imagine what excitement there was in England after the tension preceding the Spanish Armada was relieved by the downfall of the Spanish sea poweer. Following the list of plays I have some notes gathered from various sources. With these mx Chats and the books I referred to earlier no one who wishes to take up the study of Shakespeare needs to have an idle evening or needs to have any time dragging heavily. DATES OF KINGS.. John : 1199-1216 — Shakespeare. Henry 111 : 1216-1272— N0t dramatised. Edward I: 1272-1307— Peele. EdwaTd II: 1307-1327— Marlowe. Edward III : 1327-1377— Dramatised anonymously, but probably touched up by Shakespeare. Richard II: 1377-1399 — Shakespeare. Henry IV : 1399-1413— Shakespeare. Henry V: 1413-1422 — Shakespeare. Henry VI: 1422-1461— Shakespeare. Edward IV: 1461-1483 P&Y^vY" wd Edward V: 1483-1483 \ I '"' Edward VI: Richard III: 1483-1485— Shakespeare. Henry VII: 1485-1509— Shakespeare and Bacon's Prose. Henry VIII: 1509-1547— Shakespeare. SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLISH HISTORICAL PLAYS. In the Folio Shakespeare's work is divided into three kinds — conicdv. histoiy. and tragedy, but this clarification is m:<leading and inaccurate. "Cymhehne" appears among the traced ie.«, while "Measure for Measure," a play far more tragic in temper, is numbs: ed v. ith t!.e comedirs. "Richard I" is a history; "Julius Ctesar" is a tragedy. The section headed Histories contains the Historical Plays dealing with the English kings. This eort of play, "The Chronicl-2 History," flounshefl during the laft 15 years of Elizabeth's reign, and owed its popularity 'to the fervour of Armada patriotism. The newly-awakened national spirit made the people quick to discern a topical interest in the records of bygone struggles against foreign aggression and cjvil disunion. *ja. writing plays of this kind Shakespeare was following the lead of others, and the pltfys themselves, because they are based to a large extent upon earlier dramatic handlings of the same themes, and frequently sacrifice the truth of history to th« oxigencies of the drama,

are a less faithful irecord of facts than the Roman Flays, whicli derive solely from Plutarch. The plays are works of art, not chronicles of fact. THE HISTORIES. The ground plan of S.s Historical ' Dramas is patriotic almost as much as artistic. See, for example, the post's reflections at the end of the three plays that conclude respectively three periods of Anarchy — viz., "Richard III," "King John," and "Henry V." ' The Historical Plays form a "dramatic poesy — history made visible ... a kind of musician's bow, by which men's minds may be played upon. . . They show the ill-success of treason, the wretched end of usurpers, the misery of evil dissension ; and that this purpose was set before S. may be seen in "Richard | II," in which the ethical lesson of S. is proclaimed on every page, and the same is true of his other Historical Dramas. Including " Henry VIII " we have 10 ' plays to consider — the three parts of > j "Henry VI", "Richard m," "King | John," the two parts of " Henry IV," , j "Henry V," and " Henry VIII." Let us J first glance at the centuries of which j these histories are such a living record. Aided by one or two other dramatists and writers," S. gives us the story of 350 j years — i.e., from about 1200 to 1550 ; only , the reign of "Henry IDI" is left unrepresented, foi Bacon's prose fills up the gap of "Henry VDI," and the reign of " Edward* IV" (and "•Edward V," if this need be counted) is included partly in "Henry VI" and partly in "Richard VII." As to the first three Edwards, Peele wrote a poor chronicle play of " Richard I " ; Marlowe wrote " Edward II," and S. himself may have lent a hand to the anonymous drama of " Edward III." This completes the record of three and a-half centuries, and the point is not without its importance. ' Next, if we exclude from, out survey i the play of "Henry VIII" — for although I parts of it • may have been written by I S. at various periods, it is best regarded ' as one of his latest prodniobions, written most probably to order, something of an J experiment, and lately pieced together ' and completed by Fletcher. Thus we are left with nine plays, which we shall first view in three groups of three each. We have the three Chronicle plays of " Henry VI " ; three studies in kings and kingship — namely, the two " Richards " and " John," and the trilogy, as it is called, of S.s ideal monarch; in other words the two parts of " Henry IV " and the play of " Henry V." ! But we may look at these three groups ■in another light. At first, kit us say, i the slightest dramatised chronicle could 'be relied on to fill the Elizabethan j theatre, far in those days mere history was story to the mass of the people (and j a good deal of story was added to the j history) ; next, growing education, especi- . 1 ally dramatic, soon called for characterisa- ! tion ; hence the two "Richards" and j " John " ; thirdly, the one-chapter play , I — the play of • paltry king and " selfish ■ courtier — must be supplemented by the 1 drama of our complete human life, its ! comic side as well as its tragic, and 1 therefore, in the last three plays. Falstaft appears as a monarch mightier even than ' Henry V. All this S. saw, and felt it | within himself, and his genius Tose to ! the occlusion. ! Looked at from another point of view, Richard II is a etuuy in unscrupulous strength, it is he ideal villain; King John, not so easy to determine, represents . unscrupulous misrule a/nd villainy ; while j Heenry V is more clearly the poet's ideal of the perfect king and the perfect Englishman. ANOTHER SETTING. ! Shakespeare has done more, probably, to diff ase a knowledge of English history than all the historians put together, our liveliest and best impressions of Merry England iv the Olden Time being generally drawn .rom his pages. Though we seldom think of referring to him as authority in matters of fact, we are apt to make him our standard of old English manners and character and life, -reading other historians by his light, and trying them by his measures, without being distinctly consiious of it: ' Shakespeare's labours are. in the right I and full s^ense of the term, dramatic revi■vifications of the past, wherein the shades of departed things are made to live their lives over agoin, to repeat themselves a? it /•ere, undeT our eye, so that they moy : have an interest for us as no mere narraj tive of events can. posses*. . And the j further we push our historical researches, ! the more we are brought to rcccgnisa the • substantial justness of his representations. ! Even when he mukes free with chrono1 l°gy» an< * varies from the ordsr of things, it is commonly in quest of something { better'" than chronological arm racy : and i the result is. in most cases, favourable to right conceptions ; the persons and evpnts being thereby so knit in a sort of vital ' harmony as to be better understood than if they" were orde<r*d with literal exactne:3 ot time nnd place. He never fails, to ' hold the mind in natural intercourse and sympathy with living and operative truth. Kinjfs and princes ond tljp heads of State, < it is true, figni"} prominently in his .scenes: 1 but this is done Ln such a way as to set us face to fare with tli3 rpal spirit and ' I f,en-e of the peop'e. who-e claims are never ' sacrificed to make an imnns-in^ pageant ■ 1 or puppet-show of political autMrnatoEs. | If be bvinqs in fictitious rvei^ons and J events, mixing them with th» real ones it is that he maj set forth into view those parts and elements and aspects of life which lie without the range of common history, ensfirining in representative ideal forms the else neglected substance of actual character. But the most noteworthy point in this branch of the theme is that out of the , materials of an. entire age and nation he so ssleetse l ects and uses a few as to give us a just conception of the whole ; all the lines and features of his life and action, its piety, chivalry, wisdom, policy, wit. proiiij gacy, being gathered up and wrought out

in fair proportion, and clear expression. "When lie deviates from all the authorities known to have been consulted by him. there ia a large, wise propriety in his deviations, such as might well prompt the conjecture of his having written from some traditionary matter which the historians had failed to chronicle. And, indeed, some of the deviations have been remarkably verified by the researches of later, times, as if the poet had exercised a sort of prophetic power in his dramatic retrospections. The dramas derived from English history — 10 in number — form one of the most valuable of Shakespeare's works, and are partly the fruit of his maturest age. I say advisedly ONE of his works, for the poet evidently intended them to form one great whole. It is, as it were, an historical heroic poem in the dramatic form, of which the several plays form the rhapsodies. The main features of the events are set forth with such fidelity. Their causes, and even their secret springs, are placed in so clear a light that we may gain from them a knowledge of history in all its truth, while the living picture makes an impression, on the imagination -which can never be effaced. But this series of dramas is designed as the vehicle of a much higher and general instruction. It furnishes examples of the political course of the world, applicable at all times. This mirror of kings should be the manual of princes; from it they may learn the intrinsic dignity of their 'hereditary vocation ; but they will also leara the difficulties of their situation, the dangers of usurpation, tbe inevitable fall of tyranny, which buries itself under the attempts to obtain a firmer foundation. Lastly, the ruinous consequences of the weaknesses, errors, and crimes of kings for whole nations, and many subsequent generations. Eight of these plays, from " Richard II " to Richard III," are linked together in uninterrupted successions, and embrace a most eventful period of nearly a century of English history. The events portrayed in them not only follow each other, but are linked together in the closest and most exact connectioi ; and the cycle of revolts, parties, civil and foreign wars which began with the deposition of "Richard II," first ends with the accession of Henry VII to the throne (Schlegel). THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORICAL PLAYS. Why did S. start with "Henry VI" and "Richard III" and then go back and work up to "Henry V"? Perhaps for these reasons : — 1. His initial success may have caused him to go back to have further triumphs. 2. The earlier Plays represented the nearer history, tbe events of which were still fresh. 3. Possibly,* however, S. wished Ms long story from otrr annals to have a triumphant end, and that an ideal king should come last asd point the moral. The two tetralogies representing "Divided York and Lancaster" do not account for " King John." This play seems to stand alone. Perhaps it was intended to be the first play in a third historic cycle — the Plantagenet. S. had not long completed bis first series, the Wars of the Roses, and had begun his second, the Epic of Henry V, by writing "Richard II," in which Prince Hal, although in reality a chdld of 12, is already qualified to "unhorse the lustiest challenger," and at this point, impelled by' a patriotic feeling, turned aside from the projected "Henry IV" to recast a play, "The Troublesome Raigne of King John," which already contained the lines, "Let England live but true within herself, and ail the world can never -wrong her state," and concluded as follows : "If England's peers and people join in one, nor Pope, nor France, nor Spain can do them wrong." The play of "King John," therefore, might have stood as the first of a great historic ecries Which, should have running through it tbe usual theme — the evils of misrule, usurpation, dissension — a series, moveover, that was to culminate, in the victories of EttworA in, as a later cycle was to adorn its ethics of politics with the conquests of Henry VII. Perhaps, however, he was deterred, as already stated, by the fact that the first two Edwards had had their histories already drarrjaiiaed, and thai be might, have bad a in the drama of "Edward III." Bust ?s the patriotic fervour ran higher in S. than in any of his contemporaries, and a« events had happened that lent themselves to the display of patriotism, it is more probably that these events turned him a. tt >de from any plan he had formed. It might be noticed that the dying speech of John of Ghaunt in "Richard II" is reported in fewer and statelier word? in "King John." Act 2, Sc. 1, lines 23-28— "That pale." etc. But note the difference. In " Richard n " patriotism is incidental to tbe drama; (i haunt leav-:s the stage early, but his successor, Faulconbridge. plays a leading part throughout "King John." In fact. S. is determined to write a drama of which the hero shall not be a king, but the nation itself ; the genius of a people, as apart from the caprice or the villainy at' it.* rulers. ... The people of England, then, imper--or.ated by Faulconbridge. are the character and the theme of this isolated drama of "Kincr Johin," at least on its patriotic pide. When later, as in " Henry V," S. thought fit to jrive renewed and- final expression to this patriotic feeling, and ajrain to ally it with contemporary interest incident — the expedition of Essex —he could identify the ir/terests of the Crown and the Nation : and although the king was the central figure on that later stage, he stood, nevertheless, among loyal subjects; and. these not English, alone, but Welch, Scotch, and Irish. On no other occasion has S. brought the four nations together. An earlier "Henry V," therefore, is "Kin? John," a patriotic drama, in which the poet has t« write

under opposite conditions, and to teacK bis lesson of \tr»rty from. tHe book of mis- - rule and disaster, as in " Henry V " he teaches it from his triumphant epics. Note that the presence of the ideal monarch really begins as far back as "Henry VI," pt. 2, 11, 166-169.